Last Refuge
by anette95
Summary: His daughter is dead - and it's his fault.' Jack Bauer has lost everything and everyone he's ever loved. Desperate, he turns to the Last Refuge. Father and daughter fic. One-shot.


**A/N:** I just had this idea and thought around which characters this would fit... And then I thought of Jack and Kim!

I don't own any of the characters, except Reverend Johnson. Please review and tell me what you think! Thanks.

LAST REFUGE

His daughter is dead – and it's his fault.

Jack Bauer sat alone in the chapel, his head in his hands. _Alone_. He has no one left anymore. His wife is dead, his daughter is dead. And it's his fault.

"_Dad?" he heard a voice from behind him. Jack looked up from his position on the kitchen floor, beer bottles all around him. Before him stood a young woman, around 24 years old, with blonde hair neatly cut and a professional pin-striped suit._

"_What do you want?" he asked roughly._

"_I wanted to talk to you," she said, still standing._

"_Oh yeah? What about?"_

_She slowly sat down next to him on the floor. For a while she didn't say anything._

"_I wanted to apologise."_

_If Jack was at all surprised, he didn't show it._

"_I... I had no right to do what I did. Blaming you for Mom's death, you losing your work._

"_I talked to someone yesterday. Reverend Michael Johnson. Remember him?"_

_Jack did. When Jack had started drinking, 3 years ago, he was the one who tried to help him. He didn't listen, and even hit him once. After a while he stopped coming, but still called now and then. He always said the same thing: "God loves you, Jack."_

"_He sent you now to try and convert me?" Jack asked, angrily._

"_No." Kim answered. She turned around to look at her father. "I became a Christian, Dad."_

_Jack jerked his head around._

"_What?"_

"_I'm a born-again Christian. I gave my life to Jesus." Jack stared at her in shocked silence then looked down again._

"_Why?"_

"_He saved me. Without Him I would probably have been dead already. Dad, if Reverend Michael didn't find me yesterday..." She trailed off. "I wanted to commit suicide."_

"_What?!"_

"_I was tired of living, tired of feeling guilt, and missing Mom, tired of knowing I destroyed my father's life. The Reverend found me just in time. He told me about Jesus. Dad, I have heard that story a thousand times in my life, but it never...touched me like that. He made me realise that Jesus suffered worse than any human being could ever imagine! His friends betrayed Him, and He was tortured for almost a day. There wasn't one square inch of skin on His body that wasn't torn and bleeding."_

_Jack shuddered. He knew what she was talking about. He knew what it means to have friends who betray you. And the torture... Oh how he knew!_

"_After He was almost beaten to death He had to drag a rugged cross through the streets. A cross that rubbed into His body, and was so heavy He fell down numerous times. Eventually He was too weak to continue, and another man carried it for Him. Through the streets of Jerusalem they walked, people mocking Him as far as they went. People who used to be His friends, and followers._

"_He was nailed to that cross. They drove nails through His hands and feet! When His arms weren't long enough, they pulled it until it was. Then they raised the cross into the air, and He hung there for hours. Before he died, he said: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!'_

"_They did all that to Him, the Son of God, and He forgave them."_

_Kim was talking in a strange voice, with a light in her eyes that Jack had never seen before. He didn't want to hear anymore, but he couldn't stop her._

"_And you know why He did all that, Dad? So that everybody on earth, including me and you, can be saved. He died on the cross so that we won't have to be punished for our sins, but live forever!"_

_That was enough. Jack jumped up, furious._

"_How dare you come in here and tell me about God?! All he ever did for me was to make me suffer! He took your mother, and some of my best friends! He took my job. He made me suffer for years in a Chinese prison! Everything and everyone I ever loved was hurt or killed! And you try and tell me that He loves me?"_

_Kim was scared. She scrambled up, and tried to answer him, but he was too angry to hear._

"_Just take a look around you, Kim. Look at all the suffering, and death. How can a loving God let all this happen? No, He doesn't care a **** about any of us!"_

"_Dad, God gave every man a brain, and a free choice. He can't be held responsible if people murder, and steal, and do bad things! God made the world a beautiful place, but the evil things in the world made the world what it is now. God only wants the best for His children..."_

"_Oh, so now you're telling me that I CHOSE to be jobless? That I CHOSE to lose my wife, and my friends?"_

"_No, Dad, that not what I meant!" Kim was in tears now, desperately trying to convince her father._

"_Get out," Jack Bauer said through clenched teeth. "Get out and don't come back here, and take your God with you!"_

_Kim quietly went to her Dad and kissed him on the cheek._

"_Goodbye, Daddy. Remember, I love you."_

_On the way home, she got in a car accident. A drunken driver that ran a stop sign. She died immediately._

Sitting in the chapel, Jack cried. He cried for everything he said to his daughter, and everything he didn't say. He cried for everything he lost. He cried because he knew his daughter was right, and he never told her so.

After a long while, he looked up at the Man on the cross in the front of the chapel. The Man his daughter had called Saviour. Jack Bauer looked at Him, and he prayed.

"God, it's been a long time since we spoke. Too long. God, I don't know who else to turn to. I've lost everything. And I know that Kim was right. But I realised it too late. I'm always too late... But God, you said that you always gave second chances, so is it too late for me? Have I already lost my second chance? God, please forgive me. I know I don't deserve it, but I will try my best to correct my mistakes..."

Jack Bauer talked to God for a long, long time. And when he finally stood up from the pew and walked outside to the sunshine, he was a new man.


End file.
